Philippine Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro is welcomed Friday, January 16, 2009 at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City. Teodoro flew to Sulu province and met with Governor Sakur Tan and senior military and police commanders and was briefed on the progress of the rescue operation for three kidnapped Red Cross members - Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugene Vagni and Filipino Marie Jean Lacaba - seized Thursday by gunmen after visiting a prison facility in Patikul town. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 16, 2000) – Government operations against the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has been hampered by the kidnappings of three Red Cross members in Sulu province in the southern Philippine, Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro said Friday.
Gunmen kidnapped Thursday Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugene Vagni and Marie Jean Lacaba, all members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who inspected a prison facility in the town of Patikul.
Police linked the Abu Sayyaf group to the kidnappings, but the military said a former prison guard was among those who snatched the trio.
“There is an eye witness who pointed to the former jail guard as involved in the kidnapping. And base on the pattern of activity there (in Sulu), money could be the motive behind the kidnapping,” Teodoro said in Zamboanga City after visiting Sulu province.
Teodoro said the trio, who arrived January 13 in Sulu province, refused military escorts, saying, they would go to rebel camps, including the Abu Sayyaf, and brief them about the International Humanitarian Law.
“The ICRC people intimated to me that the reason also they do not want an armed escorts because they will go the MILF, the MNLF and the ASG to teach them the IHL,” he said.
Teodoro was referring to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf groups.
He said he met with Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan and senior military and police commanders and discussed the ongoing rescue operation in Sulu, where hundreds of troops are searching for the victims.
Teodoro said there has been no demand for ransom. “We will not negotiate with the kidnappers. We have a strict no-ransom policy,” he said.
He likened the kidnappers to international pirates who do not recognize neutral organizations such as the Red Cross. “They do not respect anybody, much more the Red Cross, and they (kidnappers) are like international pirates that prey on hapless people,” he said.
Police said the victims were believed taken to the hinterlands of Maimbung, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. “We have reports that then kidnappers have taken their captives to the hinterlands of Maimbung. We have put up blocking forces in the area while troops are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and their hostages,” said Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the Sulu police said.
ICRC spokesman Roland Bigler said the victims were visiting the provincial jail, carrying out a water and sanitation project to improve the conditions of detainees. He said that despite the abductions, the ICRC will still continue its various humanitarian works in the southern Philippines.
Authorities tagged the Abu Sayyaf as behind many kidnappings-for-ransom and deadly attacks in the southern Philippines. The group was also behind the abduction of 21 European tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000 and three Americans in 2001 in central Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
No comments:
Post a Comment